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Drytool Style final round report

By Kenny Stocker | 14, Dec, 2011

Gaetan Raymond reports from the final round of this year’s DTS series.

In pictures

Gaetan Raymond report from the final round of this year’s DTS series.

The third and final round of the DTS tour took place on Saturday December 3rd on the mythical site of L’Usine at Voreppe (near Grenoble). For the occasion a new route (D5) was set to allow the weaker competitors to attempt a new route. The top eight at the end of the qualifications also had the right to climb a new route in a final.

About 50 people were present for the occasion; one Austrian and one Russian even made the trip! Nicolas Raynaud and Christophe Moulin were also there representing the FFCAM.

This round is always the most important since the cave is really impressive; routes are now everywhere, even in the roof and at the side of the cave. For the occasion, two sofas and two generators are started below the cave to feed the sound to set the mood with good music and also to power the lights for the famous night time final!

The day started at 9am and already there were a lot of climbers well motivated to try the 12 routes available for qualifications (D5 to D10). The concept is still the same; each route is 1000 points and is divided by the number of climbers redpointing the route. It is therefore necessary to climb the most difficult routes, but also to accumulate the most points in order to have the chance to qualify among the eight finalists. The end of qualifying ended at 4 o’clock, 7 hours of climbing in all, ending with tired arms but the motivation was always there.

A route made of resin holds was built to test the Alpkit FigFour drytool training aids on a speed contest. During the qualification phases each one tried this route. The fastest was 20s for Olivier Brun. For the FigFour final at 4:40 the timers were reset and the finalists could make two attempts. The best time of the two was chosen. Guiguonet Benjamin won the final with 22s, he won a pair of FigFour and a Vertical jacket.

At 5pm darkness fell and the cave was illuminated by lights. The eight finalists were announced and received their rewards. That’s the DTS spirit, no competition but a hard-friendly event! Jeff Mercier, one of the organisers and route-setter (with Jonathan Joly) of the final route (D9 +) made a demonstration of this route for the finalists. The final route allows everyone to fully express themselves with the start less difficult and the end more and more difficult. Stephanie Maureau won.

First: Stephanie Maureau, four time champion is ready for the World Cup!
2nd: Yann Gerome, still going strong
3rd: Jehan-Roland Guillot, for once he has not zipped
4th: Benjamin Bucci who lost an ice axe
5th: Benjamin Guigonnet, a strong climber makes dry!
6th: Pierre Boucher
7th: Anthony Klock, a hope that progresses
8th: Frederick Degoulet always present!